English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

00:00

@RegDwigнt As bad as that was, your own adopted country beat it with Auschwitz & assorted death camps, not to mention Einsatzgruppen.

Not to mention your native country. I mean, really.

Not to mention my native country.

Genocide. Apparently it's the first game a country plays when it gets a little power.

Cerberus

01:18

@RegDwigнt Wow, so you're telling me this happens in my country, and I had absolutely no idea.

Xanne

01:40

@RegDwigнt It’s not illegal in the States. And not so simple, as the same frequencies are used by many departments.

Mitch

02:13

@tchrist Wait...are they really doing it that much in Spanish? As an NPR listener, I hear latinx -all- the time and I'm old so it is really grating

tchrist

04:01

@Mitch No, nobody does this in fucking Spanish because you simply cannot: it violates every bit of phonotactics that the language is built on. And not only is it unpronounceable, it also makes a mockery of grammar. It is far beyond foolish and well into absurd beyond measure. It's fucked up.

Go read through those other lines I posted. Have a nxxx dxx.

A fluent speaker will understand what I've written, how utterly insane and evil it is. But I wouldn't put it through Gxxglx Xlxte if I were xou.

gilipollez is the word that comes to mind. I don't know how to translate that, at least not politely.

I leave it to you why for dumbshit they say sillyprick, but this is an act of just such a jerk.

So yes, it is extremely grating to hear.

gilipollez

Noun: gilipollez f (plural gilipolleces)

(Spain, vulgar) stupidity, foolishness, silliness, asshattery, arseholery
Synonyms: estupidez, tontería, bobada, pelotudez (Argentina, Uruguay)

gilipollas

Adjective: gilipollas (plural gilipollas)

(Spain, vulgar, derogative) silly, fatheaded
Synonyms: estúpido, necio, boludo, gilí

Noun: gilipollas m or f (plural gilipollas)

(Spain, vulgar, derogative) dickhead, dumbass, wanker
Synonym: pendejo2011, Romain Monnery, Libre, solo y sin pasta, GRIJALBO (→ISBN)
Sentado en su amplio sillón de piel, me felicitó por la jugada que le había hecho a aquella gilipollas cuyo nombre había olvidado y luego me preguntó si había reflexionado sobre nuestra charla de la última vez.

Lxs Latinxs are a nonexistent group with an unpronounceable name that you'd need to have a forked tongue to say.

CowperKettle

04:18

twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1294016541315473409

I hope it all ends soon and Lukashenko goes to jail.

tchrist

It's an absurdism created by asshole English monoglots who don't know or care what atrocities they commit against the very people they would name.

@CowperKettle We keep saying that here, mutatis mutandis. It still hasn't happened.

But yes.

CowperKettle

He will have an emergency statement to the nation today. Maybe he will resign

tchrist

Don't cling too tightly to what's left in Pandora's Box.

Captain Bohemian

07:26

First, if you are having signs or symptoms of a sleep disorder, your first step is to talk to your primary care provider. But who is a primary care provider?

CowperKettle

10:17

Noradrenaline peaked in 1971, while norepinephrine was always near the bottom. A search of the Russian corpus

I'll stick with norepinephrine

RegDwigнt

@Robusto it's just an example. Lighten up. I wanted to pick 9/11 first but figured it'd be too on-the-nose.

Matt E. Эллен

@CowperKettle I got the feeling (when I studied psychology) that norepinephrine was the AmE preference and noradrenaline was the BrE, but that could just be selection bias

RegDwigнt

And you don't want to be saying anything with Hitler because Godwin's Law.

Point is, they never heard of any genocide ever. So any genocide will do.

RegDwigнt

11:34

@Cerberus this in Amsterdam just yesterday:

You telling me you never seen a scene like this before?

It's very typical.

Ziekenwagen on the left, spoedarts on the right.

Captain Bohemian

12:06

Are you sleepy?

This was the day when the last solar eclipse occurred.

This was also around the summer solstice.

The sun is a very mighty luminater.

Even though more than 95% of its disk has been covered by the moon, it's still bright enough to hurt your eyes.

Xanne

12:33

@RegDwigнt Suppose you call for one of these free Krankenwagen and hop out and say Dankeschön, I’m feeling fine now and think I’ll just visit my friend?

Robusto

13:05

@RegDwigнt No, you're right. Let's lighten up about genocide.

Hey, you put that thought in my head.

Thoughts go where they go. Deal with it.

Captain Bohemian

Doing the laundry is not only time consuming but also energy consuming. If there is a robot to help me do the laundry, that would be nice.

Robusto

Meanwhile, if we need further catastrophes to ponder we can always look at the EL&U front page.

CowperKettle

13:25

The Urals have a wide variety of species numbering just over 16 000, but sadly, over 15 000 of them are mosquitoes

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto If you're going to get any joy out of the front page you've got to read it like this

Mitch

@tchrist I've vaguely heard/have the niggling suspicion that the m/f grammatical distinction has become problematic in Spain (Latin America? (problematic = maybe some people complain) but do they do anything about it? Do they write 'latinx' for just that one word ever? Pronounce it out loud (like they do in English)?

RegDwigнt

@Xanne sure, if your friend lives in the hospital that they take you to, why not.

But you see, here in Europe we don't live in hospitals. We have homes.

@Robusto I've put the thought of slacking into your head a hundred times and you still aren't even trying.

Plus you're not supposed to be reading my shit anyway.

So what went wrong there?

And why genocide, of all things. I also talk about wine and music.

You gonna start reading my shit, you better start with those tbh.

Robusto

14:38

@RegDwigнt I think our music conversations are well represented. And who knew you drank wine? I have plenty to say on the topic. Just ask.

@MattE.Эллен And why is Laurel taking it upon herself to bump obscure questions? Don't we already have an algorithm that does that? I guess she must be working in a badge. (Note: not sure about the pronoun, just a guess.)

@RegDwigнt I slack when you're not looking. Sosiouxme.

@MattE.Эллен But yes, I take your point.

Also I meant "on" and not "in" ...

Although one could make a case for "in" on that case ...

@CowperKettle: Maybe you might be interested in Lights All Night Long?

RegDwigнt

14:55

@Robusto hm. But I'm not looking all the time. Because looking is work.

As is siouxing.

But today I've finally said fuck it and just started listening to all the Vivaldi concerti there are, until I bump into the three that I've been looking for for thirty years now.

Wish me luck.

No wait, that's work.

Wish me nothing and drink some wine instead.

Cerberus

15:40

@RegDwigнt I would not have guessed there was a doctor in that other car.

RegDwigнt

16:25

@Cerberus well who else would you have guessed to be there? Sepp Blatter?

(And why do you think it says "spoedarts", then.)

Now I'm almost afraid to tell you that it's the same for fire brigades.

They send three big trucks and a small car. The big brandweerwagen's are for the hoi polloi, and the small auto holds the actual brandweercommandant.

Bonus fun fact: the Russian word for a fire hose is brandspoit. Брандспойт.

Robusto

Too much brand loyalty in them languages.

RegDwigнt

Still better than bland royalty.

Robusto

That's a bunch of BrE, nothing to do with me.

What Makes This Song Great?™ Ep.94 Gordon Lightfoot

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RegDwigнt

16:45

@Robusto Never visit North Carolina, then. And never speak to Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt My point was royalty. BrE defers to that, AmE never will, despite the would-be king farting on the White House throne at present.

RegDwigнt

Well. All kings are would-be kings. So I'm not sure what line you're trying to draw.

I've listened to three Vivaldi concertos now and none of them are the cigar.

Neither is Gordon Lightfoot, now that you mention it.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Not Edward VIII.

RegDwigнt

Never heard of that guy.

Robusto

Edward VIII

Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December of that year. Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. He was created Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the...

The one who abdicated.

You should get your people to do better research on royalty.

RegDwigнt

16:50

Peter Serafinowicz abdicates. Also, Susie Dent hates words

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@Robusto My people can never even remember half the Russian kings.

Robusto

You should pay them, maybe they'd do better work.

RegDwigнt

So how is that working out for your terrible capitalist state.

What's the minimum wage, again. Five million dollars?

Robusto

That's the min wage for Respublican lickspittles.

RegDwigнt

Ah. See. That's why they do better work.

I'm learning so much here.

Robusto

Better ass-kissing, that's true. If that's what you need, them's the right choice.

RegDwigнt

16:59

One of the most vivid memories from my childhood is seeing the 25 rouble bill for the first time.

It lay atop our fridge. And it was like my dad's entire salary for one month.

I have never seen that much money in my whole life. Let alone as a single banknote.

Robusto

You must have had tiny fridges if you could see it up there as a child.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto that's a good question. I was maybe eight at the time. I couldn't reach any of the things on top of the fridge.

Maybe my nan stood me on a stool to show it to me.

I don't remember the circumstances. Only this wonderful and weird color.

Now of course I have like a dozen of those on some bookshelf to my left.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Is that an I? Ivaduats Pyats?

I can barely piece together normal Russian, much less weird font treatments.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt I don't remember seeing such cars.

Nor reading what's on them.

@RegDwigнt From Dutch?

RegDwigнt

17:17

Jesus Christ. I just went looking for the envelope, and there's like a million Euro in there as well. In cash. I forgot all about that I collected those as well.

So yeah. Anyway. Apparently I have three of the 25-rouble bills.

Each of which at one point used to be approximately more than there was money in the world.

Robusto

Beethoven Sucks At Music

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RegDwigнt

Some Whiterussian and Ukrainian and Armenian bills as well. Georgia must be in a different envelope. Or maybe on the window sill somewhere.

@Robusto that's a D. Dvadzat'. Actually related to the English Two-Ten and the German Zwei-Zehn. Dva-Dzat.

@Cerberus well yes from Dutch. I'm guessing Peter the Great is to blame once again.

RegDwigнt

17:36

@Robusto lots of great bits in there. Not even sure where to start.

Maybe simply by dodging it all and adding a meta point on top.

To even begin to assess who's the best composer, you have to know all the composers of all time.

You can't just watch three movies or read three novels and then pick the best ever out of those.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Nice.

RegDwigнt

18:13

@Cerberus there's tons of them everywhere. And they always say "spoedarts" right on the lights on top, or more often actually "huisarts".

Cerberus

I don't recall seeing those cars near ambulances, but I believe you.

RegDwigнt

In Germany they typically say it in bigger letters on the side and front. Where yours say "Ambulance".

Cerberus

That's more conspicuous.

RegDwigнt

Sometimes the doctor will also arrive by a motorcycle or helicopter. Depending on the circumstances.

I think I even saw a Playmobil set in the Netherlands.

pinterest.de/pin/221450506664073921

There you go.

Spoedarts op moto.

Cerberus

The stories we played out with Playmobil had nothing to do with healing people.

We did have torture.

RegDwigнt

18:18

Well they used to have more like knights and dragons.

They still have those but not as much.

Cerberus

We usually played with knights and cowboys.

RegDwigнt

LEGO just does not have any knights or castles at all.

Cerberus

Huh?

Since when?

RegDwigнt

Oh yeah cowboys is even worse, they forgot all about those decades before they forgot about castles.

Cerberus

All we ever did with Lego was build castles and use knights.

RegDwigнt

18:19

@Cerberus somewhere around the late nineties.

No pirates, either.

There will be an occasional licensed set. Like that stupid Disney movie with Johnny Depp, what was it again.

Oh yeah, the lone ranger.

That one had a small wave of Western-themed sets. And even that was like ten years ago.

Cerberus

That's crazy.

RegDwigнt

Same with pirates.

Cerberus

I would never have wanted to play with anything related to films or television series or whatever.

RegDwigнt

They did Queen Anne from Pirates of the Caribbean. And a couple other things. A stagecoach or something.

Cerberus

I just want cool knights, cowboys.

RegDwigнt

18:21

Yeah.

These days it's all licensed content all the time. All of it. All the time.

Cerberus

This was one of my favourites.

@RegDwigнt That sucks.

RegDwigнt

Even the Technic sets. Those are no longer just phantasy cars. But Lamborghinis and Porsches and Mercedeses. For like 400 Euro per set.

Cerberus

Ugh, that's horrific.

RegDwigнt

Inorite.

Cerberus

Stupid Americanisation.

Materialism.

RegDwigнt

18:23

I have the 911 and the Bugatti behind me. And the Arocs truck from Mercedes. And some Ferraris and VWs and the Mini in front of me. Also the De Lorean from Back to the Future and the Ghostbusters car.

But the Lamborghini and the Fiat and the James Bond Aston Martin I never bought and I don't think I ever will.

400 Euro for a Lamborghini. Madness.

Cerberus

Why...

We also had this one.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus that's the worst bit. In the US the sets cost like 50% of what we have to pay here. And you have to pay like 10-20% more on top of that.

Though the worst are Australia and Canada I believe. Where an actual car might be cheaper. And I'm exaggerating only very slightly.

Cerberus

One wonders why.

This was my favourite castle.

RegDwigнt

Your images are all not found for me.

Cerberus

I think I eventually integrated the tree castle into this one.

RegDwigнt

18:25

Are you getting them off Pinterest or what.

Cerberus

Huh.

I just took them from Google Images.

RegDwigнt

The last Medieval set that I got was a wonderful windmill. Maybe ten years ago. That was the last one they made. Really lovely colors and all.

Cerberus

Hmm when I go to Chrome, they don't show up.

Maybe it's a caching thing.

Can you see the new picture?

RegDwigнt

Yeah I can see them if I click on them. And then they show up here as well.

Cerberus

Stupid.

RegDwigнt

18:28

@Cerberus that one they'd just never make anymore. That's a custom baseplate. With a hill and everything.

They actually don't make any baseplates anymore. They are switching to regular plates instead.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt We had two different castles which used the exact same base plate, but with different colours painted on.

RegDwigнt

Yes I know the old sets.

Cerberus

I'm not surprised.

RegDwigнt

There was also the same baseplate but in a sand color. With some desert thing on it. Or maybe a pirate fortress. I forget.

Cerberus

Right.

RegDwigнt

18:30

I think it was Egypt actually.

Maybe a pyramid?

Cerberus

Has Playmobil at least remained true to itself?

RegDwigнt

I dunno, I never much cared for those.

But I do know that they try to copy LEGO in every respect.

Like making the Playmobil movie now.

Cerberus

Ugh.

RegDwigнt

Or bringing out those blister packs with random figures inside that you can't see until you buy and open it. And they sell them for like 7 bucks apiece.

Cerberus

Ugh.

RegDwigнt

18:31

And you have to collect like 20. And you only have a couple months, then they bring out the next wave with completely different figures.

Cerberus

That is gambling, should be illegal.

RegDwigнt

Aye.

You're not the first one to say that.

Anyway. Lemme watch the evening news to the end. I paused them halfway through to have this talk.

Cerberus

Have fun.

Mitch

19:15

@MattE.Эллен

RegDwigнt

That's an excellent idea except for the bit where it says "Greek".

Why not learn the cello instead.

Robusto

20:39

New low in Belarus election history.

RegDwigнt

20:50

> [someone] posted discussion "I composed a challenging piece" in group "Piano"

This is the third "Etude" I have composed, the aim being to master the technique of Liszt itself.

Liszt was an it? Who knew.

I'm "learning" so much about "Etudes" on "MuseScore".

@Robusto in the last couple days I've noticed quite some confusion making the rounds about who the fuck is actually meddling with their Internet and why. Because whoever is doing it doesn't target the opposition. The state propaganda machine suffers just as much.

> Whether anyone will answer for the sadistic treatment of the prisoners is unknown.

Aw that's so sweet.

It sure is known to me.

Captain Bohemian

21:08

What does cavitron mean？

Xanne

22:12

@Robusto Putin must be pleased. He needs Belorus to get to Kaliningrad, unfortunately for the Belorussians.

And to the Baltics.

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